IDF 2019 Pitch Competition Winner: Yeti Yuli Astuti: Building Collaboration Space to Create Hundreds of Small Businesses

The Local Enablers Community.

The winner of the IDF 2019 Pitch Competition Winner, Yeti Yuli Astuti, together with activists from The Local Enablers Community (TLE) in Bandung, developed a platform that has generated the establishment of 140 small businesses and social enterprises. This platform provides space to meet, discuss, and create things. Since the beginning of 2019, the collaboration space in Jatinangor, West Java has been named "Room for Friends". This name also became the title of a brief presentation at the 2019 IDF, aligned with Sub-Theme 6, Fostering Social Enterprises.

“The new businesses were spread out in various regions, mostly in West Java. Several businesses outside West Java were those established by students who used to study in Bandung and then went back to their hometown. Each business unit has an average of two to three target villages," explained Yeti, who is the Co-founder of The Local Enablers.

Aside from being the CEO of TLE, Yeti is also the President Director of the Sacita Muda startup. Yeti has experience in working on women's empowerment, from entrepreneurship to skills related to financial management. She often comes to rural areas to help local communities, especially women to plan and develop poor communities through the activation of social entrepreneurship. In 2017, Sacita Muda received Perwira Award from the Governor of West Java as a New Start-Up Business in Education & Empowerment.

What are more than 140 business units generated by TLE? Yeti gave the example of Maner, a perfume brand developed in Palembang, South Sumatra. This startup has been established for two years. There is also Fruits Up, which has been empowering mango farmers in Cirebon since five years ago. Quoted from West Java Tribunnews, Fruits Up is a brand of processed mango products of various flavors that are packaged in bottles. It was founded by three alumni of Padjadjaran University.

In addition to their role in the establishment of over one hundred small business units, TLE has also fostered 7,500 MSMEs in West Java and replicated the process of activating social entrepreneurship to 101 Higher Education Institutions in Indonesia. TLE, which was established in 2014, has also trained and assisted 100 duck farmers in West Java and trained 24,525 students to increase their capacity.

Coworking Space and Free Assistance

Yeti and TLE activists established Room for Friends, a kind of free co-working space, for a variety of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and social entrepreneurship activities. The room has a modern concept, equipped with a coffee shop and a kitchen for beginners who are doing social entrepreneurship research and product development workshops. The Coworking Space in Room for Friends is a place to gather, prepare programs, be updated on the new literatures, latest scientific tools, to use free wifi, computer equipment, and to get a free consultation.

"The point is that this space is a place for developing human capacity. Especially that of the young people who have high enthusiasm to learn to become entrepreneurs, the economically disadvantaged students, the laid-off employees, small communities, and also housewives who want to learn," Yeti explained. 

The role of TLE activists is to be a sharing and facilitating friend for those who want to study in Room for Friends.

“The subjects of learning include business models, product development, financial management, networking capacity, and public speaking," continued Yeti.

In this space, the beneficiaries are also equipped with the basic values of friendship, leadership, introduced to the vision of an ideal future (visioning), enriched with various creative inputs (future knowledge and skills). In addition, they are also connected with various stakeholders who are able to provide various access to resources (man, machine, method, material, money).

The method of learning or mentoring in Room for Friends is transformative learning based on design thinking with various forms of activities such as workshops, training, daily discussions with mentors, and other action learning activities. TLE also develops learning canvases that are arranged to facilitate the delivery of material.

According to Yeti, Room for Friends is funded from the profits generated by the TLE business unit, Sacita Muda.  Students who joined and studied in Room for Friends came from Padjadjaran University, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), and the Indonesian Cooperative Management Institute (Ikopin).

Improve curriculum, expand collaboration

In the short term, TLE through Room for Friends wants to refine the curriculum to assist MSMEs, especially those engaged in social entrepreneurship. As for the medium and long term, TLE wants to expand collaboration with various business entities and work with the government. 

“With the government, we help facilitate activities that support MSMEs, such as technical training and business training. We hope that these activities can somehow be connected with our program, Room for Friends, as there are many friends who have the potential to become entrepreneurs in this program," Yeti said.

Regarding access to capital, Yeti admitted that this was not considered a priority in the empowerment effort for Room for Friends.

"Before joining, many thought that a new business could start if you already had money. What we want to spread is that starting a business can actually be from zero rupiah. The most important thing is the human capacity, and if the network has been well developed, in our opinion, we are ready to start a business," Yeti added.

At the Indonesia Development Forum, Yeti appeared at the Ideas and Innovations Marketplace, Co-creating and Collaboration session, on July 22, 2019. The main theme of the  IDF 2019 was "Mission Possible: Seizing the Opportunities of Future Work to Drive Inclusive Growth." 

Congratulations to Yeti Yuli Astuti for winning the IDF 2019 Pitch Competition!